kiko – Page 16 – d@vidb dot net

Happy New Year 2011!

Happy New Year from Tanegashima. Year of the rabbit… (usagi)

Now enjoy my happy children.

Kiko overcoming feares!

I am proud of you Kiko!

and one of Hana for good measure…

Family Update

Pictures from our visit to Toronto!

and dressing up our kids as animals for good measures

and one more family…

Forgot Rhiannon’s Wedding!

July Update

Hana at the Vancouver Japanese School festival.

The kids at a Lavender field in Victoria.

Our family’s first wild horse ride with Nicole’s dad.

Cherry picking near Maple Ridge…

Last Month in Japan

As many of you know by now, we are preparing to leave Japan.

Both our children were born here and it has been more than 5 years since we have lived anywhere else.

Lots of people to say goodbye to, and things to finish before we go!

WIll update more soon…

She looks like one of those North Korea karaoke singers…

The halfies…

And goodbye to some good friends…

And some ice cream for good measure…

Highlights from Thailand

Had our first real family vacation (other than Guam) to a foreign country.

Here are the highlights… working on a new site which should have more than just pictures of kids… be excited.

Family trip to Tanegashima

It’s summer vacation! So we can either have the kids hang around all summer and drive us (mostly Kiko!) crazy, or we can ship the family off to Tanegashima.

This year, it happens to align with the total eclipse (I’ll give you a hint… rain) where the Southern tip of Tanegashima was in the 100% zone.

We also took a side trip to Yakushima, the island that inspired Hayao Miayazaki’s Princess Mononoke (Look it up) and Noa got to play with nature (touch bugs), and both Hana and Noa got to play with their cousins.

I took one week (the first one) with them and am heading back to Tokyo shortly. I have a feeling he is going to forget all his English by the time he gets back, so I have loaded him up with some Super Why! (Look it up!) and Transformers.

In the meantime, here is our week in pictures…

RumiRumi (Noa’s personal hair assistant) Dad is on the right.

Noa getting some Super Why in the mix with Hina.

Our dissapointing but still cool 100% total eclipse. (It did get really dark outside for 2 minutes!)

Hana throwing a tantrum over the fact that we couldn’t actually see the eclipse.

Noa’s friend George. I am too lazy to turn it the right way round.

Noa being cool.

Both Noa and Hana really enjoyed the ocean this time around.

Noa enjoys relaxing…

… and Hana enjoys posing.

All of these were taken with the iPhone camera so apologies in advance. (Actually they came out pretty good.)

Since I am making this post in the ghetto, you will have to squint and turn your head appropriately to enjoy the pictures.

I am going to miss everyone while they are here, but with trips to Dalian, China and Singapore coming up… will be busy.

Family Picture at Fireworks

So … umm.. apparently there is one thing more frightening than Tickle me Elmo… fireworks.

Noa has been scared of fireworks since he was born, and now at 3 1/2, no exceptions.

He freaks out. Screams, cries, runs away (almost gets hit by a bus) and hangs out in McDonalds.

Here is a family picture taken before the happening.

Goggy

Goggy passed away today at the age of 97.

Will write more later, and want to thank everyone for the kind words.

A big thank you to Scott for the following

so sorry to hear. i know she was such a wonderful person… always talked to me when i came by, asking about my life and was genuinely interested. she lived a really long and full life and always seemed happy and positive.

I wish I could have been there with her.